Important historically as the first CinemaScope feature film,
Hollywood's answer to the competition from television. It was based on
a 1941 best-seller biblical story by American clergyman and fiction writer Lloyd C. Douglas, and is written by Philip
Dunne and Gina Kaus. Henry Koster ("My Cousin Rachel"/"My
Man Godfrey"/"Mr.
Hobbs Takes a Vacation") directs it as a leaden, stodgy and bland
classic Hollywood big-budget religious epic. It's set in ancient Rome
during
the eighteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, and the filmmaker
seemingly beams with inane pride that the orgy weary Roman soldier
played by Richard Burton turns pious by converting to Christianity.
It's all about Burton and co-star Jean Simmons getting an overwhelming
religious feeling if they can retain that piece of cloth the Christ
wore before his crucifixion. It amounts to retail religious hogwash,
and the all-star cast responds in kind with stiff performances (except
for the little regarded thesp Victor Mature, who surprisingly impresses
with his mature performance in such a poorly executed drama). This
Bible story, with its mix of fictional and historical characters, can't
even measure up to the doggerel-ridden shallow Bible epic of The Ten
Commandments.

When
Roman centurion
Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton), whose pop is a senator (Torin
Thatcher), outbids the perverted heir to the empire Caligula (Jay
Robinson) in a Roman market auction to purchase the educated Greek
slave Demetrius (Victor Mature), he finds himself transferred to the
troublesome military post at Jerusalem, in Palestine. Before leaving, Marcellus meets his
long-suffering orphaned child playmate Diana (Jean
Simmons), now grown to be a beautiful and sensitive
woman who has become a ward of the Emperor
Tiberius (Ernest
Thesiger). The emperor insists she
marry his fruity nephew and heir, the corrupt Caligula, but she's buoyed by Marcellus' promise
that when he returns home he'll marry her.

Marcellus is assigned by
Pilate (Richard Boone) as one of the soldiers to crucify Christ.
Afterwards Marcellus gets drunk and wins in a dice game the robe Christ
last wore. The soldier visits the dying Christ on the
cross and some of his blood spills on his hands, and in a whisper
Christ says "Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do." During a rainstorm when Marcellus tries on
the robe, it burns and is taken by Demetrius--who calls his master a murderer
and runs away with the homespun robe.

Marcellus is ordered by Pilate to go to
Capri by boat and once again hooks up with Diana. Concerned about his horrible nightmares
since trying on the robe, the soldier meets with Tiberius' soothsayer
Dodinius who theorizes that the robe is bewitched and that he must
destroy it to be
freed of its spell. Tiberius gives Marcellus approval to return as a
Roman merchant to Palestine to search for the robe. There Marcellus is intrigued
by the miracles performed by Jesus, as related to him by eyewitnesses
and the believers in Jesus' resurrection. But Marcellus'
protector Tiberius has died and Caligula is now emperor, and he
attempts to kill all the followers of Jesus. By now Marcellus is a
reformed dandy and pledges to serve Jesus, as he's converted by Justus
(Dean Jagger) and Simon called Peter (Michael Rennie). This conversion
suddenly makes Marcellus luminous, and he returns to Rome tripping out
over his new godliness to the point that he's unconcerned with his
safety even though he knows that Caligula hates him with the same
passion he hates all Christians.

Burton
is served a death sentence to be in such a turgid film, one that ranges
from being creaky to silly to just plain vulgar. The Robe makes way for
the sequel the following year of Demetrius
and the Gladiators,that was
just as ridiculous but a bit more fun to view the Victor Mature slave
character, who saved the robe for this pic, punish the Roman gladiators
in the arena.